Mameda, a young tanuki or “mame-danuki”, is ready to leave behind her boring old village and enjoy the big city, Osaka! But unfortunately for Mameda this is no longer the feudal era where cheap tanuki tricks could part humans from their senses and their money with ease, this is the Taisho Era where street lamps glow brighter than any will o’wisp she could conjure, shop keepers inspect the money for forgeries, and no one has the good sense to be easily scared anymore! After one such failure, Mameda finds herself in a yose where rakugo is being performed and she’s amazed at how humans allow themselves to be so easily “tricked” by mere words when she couldn’t do that at all! Mameda is inspired and has vowed to learn from the best, the performer named Bunko (who could easily see through her tricks), and become a rakugoka herself!
Bunko has a secret as well; while Mameda still has a hard time staying transformed into a human (and note the tell-tale leaf on her head), Bunko appears to be a fox with a much better mastery over her own transformation and Mameda is taken with how she tricks humans openly (by telling rakugo stories) and in plain sight (by masquerading as a human). So far there’s no sign of what she looks like as a fox, or her reason for living amongst humans so long that she’s become a full-fledged rakugo master, but secrets like these always take a bit of time to unfold.
The series also has very light yuri vibes so far — at times it seems like Mameda has a bit of a romantic crush on Bunko but most of the time it comes off more as adoration for her skills. After two volumes, it’s definitely not enough for me to call yuri but since I did wonder when I first picked up the series it seemed worth noting that Mameda’s infatuation doesn’t seem like it’ll go any further. So far it seems as if the cast does skew more female than male but I don’t expect anything romantic to develop with the side characters (even if they are also tons of fun).
As for the rakugo itself, the performances, practice, etc. are a part of the story but not the only part of it. Those stories are told through snippets that are as much about the audience’s reaction as they are about the story itself and it comes off as a merry, fun kind of performance to drop into, a different tone from the obvious elephant in the room, Showa Genroku Rakugo Shinju. This being Osaka, the stories are also told slightly differently (in the kamigata style with a lectern and specific props) and the manga includes little explainers about each story told/terminology used in-between the chapters which I appreciated.
It’s a cute story, never getting too dark or too serious so far (although occasionally spooky, this is a tale of yokai after all) and the same could be said about the art. It’s light and fluffy, as detailed as it needs to be, and rather charming, frankly I don’t know if the upcoming anime can improve upon it! This is definitely a series I can see myself continuing with and, given that the anime trailer shows some scenes and characters who did not appear in these first two volumes, I’m looking forward to that version as well!